Elizabeth Taylor

With the arguable exception of Marilyn Monroe, no other star from Hollywood's Golden Age exerted a more enduring hold on the public's imagination than the violet-eyed beauty, Elizabeth Taylor. For nea...
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8 Actors You Never Realized Worked With Their Spouses

It's common in Hollywood for actors to fall in love after playing a couple in a movie, just look at Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. But what about the actors who quietly work with their significant others? We think it's more interesting to play "Spot The Spouse" when watching a movie or TV show.
Anna Faris and Chris Pratt - What's Your Number? and Take Me Home Tonight
20th Century Fox/captcevans.tumblr.com
Universal Pictures/onscreenkisses.tumblr.com
Everyone now knows that Anna &amp; Chris are married, given Chris' extremely successful 2014 with The Lego Movie and as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. But back when Anna was in her prime rom-com streak, she starred in What's Your Number? with Chris Evans as her leading man, and her husband of 2 years (at the time) as one of her "disgusting" ex-boyfriends. The couple met in 2007 on the set of the move Take Me Home Tonight, which didn't have a theatrical release until 2011.
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman - Parks and Recreation and Will &amp; Grace
NBC/holden-caulfieldings.tumblr.com
NBC/anostalgicnerd.tumblr.com
Bet you didn't realize that Tammy 2 is actually married to Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) in real life. The couple has been married since 2003, having met in 2000 while working on a play together in L.A. Over the course of the 7 seasons of Parks &amp; Rec, Megan has played Swanson's crazy ex-wife Tammy. During the fourth season of Will &amp; Grace, Offerman had a guest spot on his wife's popular show.
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka - How I Met Your Mother
CBS/lilymarshall.tumblr.com
NPH starred on this show for 9 years and his husband (boyfriend at the time of his first appearance), David Burtka, appeared on the show as the crazy obsessed ex-boyfriend of Lily (Alyson Hannigan) that was not ready to let her go.
Cobie Smulders and Taran Killam - How I Met Your Mother
CBS/try-hood.tumblr.com
Taran made his first appearance on Cobie's hit show in 2006, when they were still dating. He appeared on the show several times, before and after their 2009 wedding, as one of Barney's co-workers. He made a final appearance in 2014 during the episode "The End of the Aisle."
Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Reno 911!
FX/sohappily.tumblr.com
Comedy Central/hellyeahcharlieday.tumblr.com
Charlie is married to the waitress! Charlie and Mary Elizabeth Ellis met in 2001, but began dating in 2004 and married by 2006. They first appeared as an incestuous twins on Reno 911! before It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia began in 2006, on which Charlie is a main character on and Mary has played "the waitress" throughout the series.
Steve and Nancy Carell - The Office, The Daily Show, and The 40 Year Old Virgin
NBC
This couple met back in the early 90s when Steve Carrell performed with the troupe The Second City and Nancy was one of his students. They first worked together as correspondents on The Daily Show, before Steve was a leading man. Nancy played a health clinic counselor in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Later on The Office, she first played Steve's character's girlfriend, Carol Stills, on the show (but that relationship didn't work out), who was also a realtor.
Adam and Jackie Sandler - Most Adam Sandler movies
theladyfiend.tumblr.com
After meeting through Rob Schneider after working on Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo, Adam Sandler gave Jackie a role in his film Big Daddy and she's appeared in many of his films since, such as: 50 First Dates, Eight Crazy Nights, Grown Ups, and more. The couple got married in 2003 and have two children together.
Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor - Zoolander and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Paramount Pictures/tumblr.com
Columbia Pictures/giolovesnetflix.tumblr.com
You've probably noticed a pattern of Christine Taylor popping up in many Ben Stiller films, such as the two above, as well as Tropic Thunder. Usually, she plays the girl that Ben Stiller's character wants to get with (and doesn't, except for Zoolander), but you probably didn't realize they have been married since 2000.
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The trustees of Elizabeth Taylor's estate have hit bosses at Christie's Inc. auction house with a lawsuit following a stand-off over millions from a jewellery sale. Buyers from around the world phoned in to bid on the late Hollywood icon's jewellery collection in 2011, including the 33.29-carat Elizabeth Taylor Diamond - a gift from her husband Richard Burton - which went under the hammer for $8.8 million (£5.5 million), only for the anonymous buyer to change his mind and pass on the massive heart-shaped gem.
According to the lawsuit obtained by TMZ.com, Christie's paid the trustees before the buyer opted out of the deal, and when the auction house bosses asked for the money back, the trustees refused.
Now, Taylor's estate officials are not only blaming Christie's for the botched deal, they claim the auction house chiefs still owe them millions from the jewellery sale, which also included a $2.9 million (£1.8 million) Bulgari ring and a Valentino fur evening purse.
The trustees allege that Christie's bosses are refusing to hand over the money for all the other items sold at the auction, unless they receive the money from the massive diamond.
Taylor's auction in New York set a world record in 2011 after the items fetched $118 million (£74 million) in one night, making the actress' gems the most valuable private collection of jewels ever sold at auction.
A portion of profits from the sale was reportedly donated to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.

Actress Rosario Dawson, musician Harry Belafonte and fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier have been honoured at the annual amfAR gala in New York City for their continued work in the fight against AIDS. Award presenters Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour joined guests including Heidi Klum, Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton, Kendall Jenner and Karlie Kloss for Wednesday's (11Feb15) bash at Cipriani Wall Street for the traditional kick off for New York Fashion Week.
During her acceptance speech at the black tie event, Sin City star Dawson hailed her adopted uncle Frank, who has been living with HIV since 1984, as her "hero" and dedicated her prize to her mother Isabel Celeste, as she was celebrating her birthday that night, while Belafonte paid tribute to amfAR co-founder Elizabeth Taylor, thanking charity bosses for helping him to make a difference, revealing, "We have a new and enlightened global community; we are now on the threshold of breakthroughs that never existed before we stepped into the fray."
The event, which featured a performance from Dame Shirley Bassey and an art auction, raised $2.2 million (£1.4 million) for the cause.

A birthday poem late country legend Johnny Cash wrote to his wife June has topped a British poll of romantic correspondence. To mark the singer/songwriter's 65th birthday in 1994, the Folsom Prison Blues hitmaker put pen to paper and poured out his feelings for his wife.
He wrote, "You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You're the object of my desire, the #1 Earthly reason for my existence.
"We got old and got used to each other. We think alike. We read each others (sic) minds. We know what the other wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes we take each other for granted. But once in a while, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met."
His love note beat out letters from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, poet John Keats, Jimi Hendrix and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
The poll was commissioned by bosses at British life insurance company Beagle Street to mark Valentine's Day on Saturday (14Feb15).

Moviemaker Mike Leigh is to be feted with a special honour by officials at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). The director will be presented with a BAFTA Fellowship award, which recognises excellence in the entertainment industry, at the annual prizegiving ceremony in London on Sunday (08Feb15).
Leigh says, "What a privilege to be honoured with the BAFTA Fellowship. I'm moved, delighted and surprised."
Amanda Berry, Chief Executive of BAFTA, adds, "Mike Leigh is one of Britain's finest filmmakers, so I am delighted that we will honour him with the Fellowship... He is a true innovator, an artist and an exceptional filmmaker."
Previous recipients of the honour include Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Olivier, and Dame Judi Dench, and Dame Helen Mirren, who was awarded the fellowship at last year's (14) ceremony.

Tragic singer Amy Winehouse and late Hollywood legend Dame Elizabeth Taylor are to have their life stories preserved for posterity as part of a national biography record in the U.K. The two stars will be among 223 notable figures, who all died before the end of 2011, who will be added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Baker Street hitmaker Gerry Rafferty is also on the list, along with the now notorious Sir Jimmy Savile, the disgraced British DJ who was unmasked as a serial child abuser following his death in 2011.
Officials behind the list have been forced to defend their inclusion of Savile alongside stars considered to be national treasures.
Editor David Cannadine says, "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is not a collection of the 'great and good' but a record of people who left their mark on national life, for good or ill. The DNB has always included criminals, particularly those whose crimes led to sustained debate on matters of public protection, as in the case of Jimmy Savile."

Maybe it's because we've been struggling to find one man to love us, let alone two, or maybe it's because it reduces pretty awesome female characters to a girl who can't decide which boy she loves, but we've grown a pretty tired of the love triangle trope saturating so many TV shows and movies. It seems like vampires are only ever happy if they're competing for a girl (and, of course, they simply must be vampires). Are there really no other ways to complicate a love story?
1. Sookie/Eric/Bill (True Blood)
HBO
Sookie, waitress (who spends shockingly little time actually waiting tables) and faerie, loves vampire Bill Compton. She is "his," which is some pseudo-romantic vampire way of possessing a woman like an object, and along comes douchey bad-haired vampire Eric. She hates Eric at first, but then he cuts his hair and gets amnesia, forgetting he's actually a jerk, and they fall in love. And then the two vampires compete over her for, like, ever. After this whole love triangle (a square, if you consider her relationship with werewolf Alcide) ordeal fades, she ends the series with a rando who we don't meet. Umm, cool? At least we had some steamy moments of threesome fantasies.
2. Olivia/Jake/Fitz (Scandal)
ABC
Is anyone into Olivia and Fitz anymore? We're not really sure there would be a show without this love triangle though, because Pope &amp; Prez need to be lovers torn apart, and, what with the First Lady generally approving of their relationship (and engaging in extramarital affairs of her own), something needs to keep them apart. Enter Jake, secret agent man. We like Olivia Pope best when she's wearing Burberry trenches and "handling" situations like nobody else can. We tolerate her love life (although we do cherish the non-booty calls and her standing up for herself).
3. Jack/Kate/Sawyer (Lost)
ABC
We're not sure if we'll ever fully understand what happened on Lost, but we do know that the episodes weren't nearly as entertaining when they focused on this love triangle. Wasn't there enough going on here without this overplayed scenario?
4. Bella/Jacob/Edward (The Twilight Saga)
Summit Entertainment
As much as we tried to bury our head in the sand and avoid this book/film series, the cursed Team Edward/Team Jacob drama found a way to perpetually enter our lives. Its ubiquity alone is enough to grow tired of. As far as we're concerned, if we didn't like the vampire-werewolf-human triangle on True Blood (okay, Sookie isn't human, but you get it), we're certainly not going to enjoy one where the vampire sparkles.
5. Rory/Dean/Jess (Gilmore Girls)
The WB
This is the love triangle we understand the most of all of these. No, not just because both Dean and Jess are irresistible and pretty unconditional in their affection for the perfect Rory Gilmore, but because Dean was sort of the first boy she had ever noticed. She started dating him, things were going smoothly, and then Jess came along. Understandably, when a bad boy who loves reading comes along, swooning is inevitable. Dean was a good first boyfriend, a bit too needy for our taste, and Jess made a huge mistake by, you know, leaving town while still dating Rory and not even saying anything, but we understood where she was coming from, at least. That still didn't make it enjoyable to watch Dean peacock and proclaim Stars Hollow as "his town."
6. Jack/Elizabeth/Will (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Walt Disney Pictures
Come on, Elizabeth! You can't just throw away your relationship every time Johnny Depp looks damn cute in a costume. You will never have a healthy love life that way.
7. Meredith/Derek/Addison (Grey's Anatomy)
ABC
It's always a grey area when a TV show makes you ship a relationship between a married man and his mistress, and that's exactly what happened here. We liked Derek and Meredith with the complications they already faced - a one night stand that turned into the pair working at the same hospital (and the accusations that she was sleeping her way to the top). When Addison came back into the picture, it just annoyingly kept apart two characters we knew should be together.
8. Serena/Nate/Dan (Gossip Girl)
The CW
The relationships on Gossip Girl mostly played like a square dance's exchange of partners, and we never liked Nate and Serena together (even though, goodness gracious, they were a gorgeous-looking couple) because he was her BFF's boyfriend. What happened to girl code, S? (To be fair, Blair then went for Lonely Boy despite his former relationship with Serena). Eventually, this show's only relationship we rooted for was strangely Chuck and Blair.
9. Katniss/Peeta/Gale (The Hunger Games)
Lionsgate via Everett Collection
This one never seemed like much of a love triangle to us. As we read the book, and even in the first movie, we sort of felt like, "Gale who?" It was always Peeta. Katniss and Gale's relationship was strictly platonic, despite Hemsworth's hunkiness. His attractiveness is all he has going for him, and it's squandered by his jealousy. Peeta, on the other hand, is cute, caring, maybe a little needy, but we dig it. The real attraction to the movies/books lies in the revolution though (which is greatly motivated by Katniss' desire to rescue Peeta, further proof of his superiority).
10. Buffy/Angel/Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
The WB
Seriously, what is it about vampire relationships that leads to love triangles? This is a little ridiculous. Buffy and Angel are perfect beyond words, a modern supernatural Romeo and Juliet plagued not by sparring families, but by an ancient curse, and Spike had vampire impotence and made a Buffy-bot. Really? We liked Buffy and Spike's banter, but the romance between the two always felt a bit wrong to us (and even Spike didn't believe her when she said she loved him).
11. Ross/Rachel/Joey (Friends)
NBC
Why. Did. This. Happen. Ross and Rachel, the annoyingly on-again, off-again, "we-were-on-a-break" couple everyone shipped throughout the 90s, were each other's lobsters. Joey, the show's resident Casanova, suddenly falls in love with her, even though she has Ross' baby? Whose decision was that?

"Those extraordinary violet eyes! When you looked into them you'd be tempted to give her whatever she wanted." Former Bond actor Sir Roger Moore remembers the enchanting looks of the late Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

Colin Farrell, Katy Perry and Coldplay have teamed up to contribute to a new short film about Elizabeth Taylor's dedication to HIV/AIDS research. The late movie icon dedicated her final years to raising funds for and awareness about the disease, and to mark World AIDS Day on Monday (01Dec14), officials at The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation announced the debut of the project.
The short film features narration from Taylor's friend Farrell and music donated by Katy Perry, Coldplay and One Republic.
Irish star Farrell says, "This project shines a bright light on Elizabeth's fearless and tireless commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS and it is an honour to be a part of it.
"The threat of HIV is ever-present - even with the great advancements in research and treatment, there is an enormous amount of work to be done in order to eradicate HIV/AIDS by 2030, which is the UN's (United Nations) new fast-track goal.
"Elizabeth was a visionary in many ways, and she set up The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation to care for the most marginalised people affected by HIV/AIDS until a cure is discovered... When Elizabeth Taylor accepted an honorary Oscar in 1992 for her work in HIV/AIDS causes, she implored us to be 'a human race', and care for those who need our help. It's 20 years later and that plea still stands."

Rihanna splashed out $135,000 (£84,000) at an auction to benefit AIDS research at the star-studded amfAR Inspiration gala in Los Angeles on Wednesday (29Oct14).
The Diamonds hitmaker bid $100,000 (£62,500) on a vintage print of late actress Dame Elizabeth Taylor, the co-founder of amfAR, and $35,000 (£22,000) on diamond earrings during the benefit event.
Justin Timberlake bought a Damien Hirst painting, while Miley Cyrus, who almost exposed her breasts in a bondage-style outfit, also bid on a print.
All donations help fund amfAR's AIDS research programs.
Gwyneth Paltrow hosted the gala and Cyrus made a speech about raising AIDS awareness. Rihanna later took to the stage to present the night's honouree, fashion designer Tom Ford, with his Inspiration Award. He was given the honor in recognition of his career and his commitment to fighting the AIDS crisis.
Guests, who spent at least $3,000 (£1,900) on a ticket, also included Sharon Stone, Milla Jovovich, Kelly Osbourne, Lea Michele, Eddie Redmayne, Michelle Rodriguez, Kristin Davis and Kat Dennings.

Last major acting performance, the ABC TV-movie "These Old Broads" with Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds, and Joan Collins

Portrayed the title role of the big-budget feature "Cleopatra"; directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz; Burton, who played Mark Antony, and Taylor began a much publicized off-screen affair during production

Returned to features for the live-action film "The Flintstones"

Made TV-movie debut in the two-part "Divorce His, Divorce Hers"; again collaborating with Richard Burton

Achieved child star status playing the leading role in Clarence Brown's "National Velvet"

Launched second fragrance "White Diamonds"

Played Martha opposite Burton's George in Mike Nichols' adaptation of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Again co-starred with Clift in "Suddenly, Last Summer"; first collaboration with future husband, Eddie Fisher

Re-teamed with then husband Richard Burton in "The Sandpiper"

Awarded a record setting contract of $1 million to portray the title role in "Cleopatra"

Played a beautiful socialite opposite Montgomery Clift in George Stevens' "A Place In The Sun"

Summary

With the arguable exception of Marilyn Monroe, no other star from Hollywood's Golden Age exerted a more enduring hold on the public's imagination than the violet-eyed beauty, Elizabeth Taylor. For nearly 70 years, the press chronicled every element of Taylor's very public private life, which was fraught with more melodrama, romantic intrigue, and scandal than the collected works of Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins combined. The eight marriages, medical crises, and headline-grabbing meltdowns all but eclipsed the fact that Taylor twice won the Best Actress Academy Award, for "Butterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), respectively. Or that the American Film Institute ranked the five-time Oscar nominee seventh on its list of the "25 Greatest Women Screen Legends" in 1999. And while Taylor's filmography was littered with critical and commercial flops - most infamously the epic box disaster "Cleopatra" (1963) - she also gave indelible performances in such classics as "National Velvet" (1944), "A Place in the Sun" (1951), "Giant" (1956) and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) - all of which added to her reputation as one of the most talented, larger-than-life actresses to have ever graced the silver screen.<p>Ironically, the raven-haired, violet-eyed screen siren elicited more pity than awe when she entered the world on Feb. 27, 1932. The second child of Francis and Sara Taylor, American expatriates living in London, the infant Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor suffered from hypertrichosis; which left her tiny body completely covered in soft black hair. Although her parents were understandably alarmed, their worries vanished after a few weeks when the unsightly hair fell away, revealing their newborn daughter's exquisite beauty. While Francis Taylor managed his uncle's art gallery, Sara lavished attention on Elizabeth, whom she simultaneously indulged and controlled. Both Elizabeth and her adored older brother Howard, three years her senior, were raised in privilege. Every whim was indulged, but at the same time, Sara carefully groomed Elizabeth to carry herself with poise, particularly after the four-year-old captivated an audience with her impromptu solo performance during a dance recital. A former actress with a handful of 1920s-era stage roles to her credit, Sara immediately recognized her daughter's nascent star quality. The same could not be said, however, of Hollywood film executives.<p>In 1941, two years after the Taylors left London to settle in Los Angeles, Sara Taylor finagled a six-month contract for nine-year-old Elizabeth at Universal Pictures; the ever enterprising stage mother had befriended the wife of Universal Pictures chairman J. Cheever Chowdin. Then a shy and sheltered little girl, Elizabeth made her inauspicious screen debut in a Universal short film, "There's One Born Every Minute" (1942) co-starring Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer of "Our Gang" fame. Taylor's performance as a bratty little girl in this quickie programmer failed to impress Universal's casting director Dan Kelly, who complained that Taylor's eyes were "too old" and that she did not "have the face of a kid." Subsequently dismissed by Universal, Taylor soon rebounded with an MGM contract, thanks to her father's friendship with producer Samuel Marx. In the midst of shooting "Lassie Come Home" (1943), starring Roddy McDowall and Donald Crisp, Marx was desperately looking for a young girl to play the small but pivotal role of Priscilla, the granddaughter of a rich Yorkshire landowner. Despite her inexperience - she had no formal training, just her mother's incessant coaching - Taylor nevertheless beat out four other actresses for the part. The resulting film did little to boost her profile on the MGM lot; in fact, the studio promptly loaned her out to 20th Century Fox for a brief role in "Jane Eyre" (1944).<p>Although her mother micro-managed Taylor's life and career, the 12-year-old MGM contract player was no longer the malleable naïf, thrust onto a soundstage, as she had been during her brief Universal tenure. Determined to play the coveted role of Velvet Brown, the horseback riding heroine of "National Velvet," Taylor launched a major charm offensive against Lucille Ryman Carroll, the head of MGM's talent department. She won the demanding role, which required her to play an English country girl masquerading as a boy to ride her beloved horse in the Grand National Steeplechase. Under Clarence Brown's sensitive direction, Taylor gave a spirited and utterly assured performance in this heartwarming adaptation of Enid Bagnold's novel, co-starring Mickey Rooney, Anne Revere, and another fresh-faced newcomer, Angela Lansbury. Thanks to "National Velvet," Taylor finally became a bona fide movie star. Unlike many of her classmates at the studio's little red schoolhouse, she never went through a career-ending "awkward stage." The ethereally lovely adolescent blossomed into a drop-dead gorgeous ingénue, equally believable playing teenagers and older women alike. In 1949, the same year she played Amy March in MGM's glossy remake of "Little Women," the studio cast the 17-year-old as Robert Taylor's wife in the espionage thriller, "Conspirator." She acquitted herself nicely in both roles, but the proverbial jury was still out as to whether Taylor was an actress of depth, rather than simply a glamorous leading lady.<p>If not for director George Stevens, Taylor might have continued providing little more than eye candy in MGM films, like the crowd-pleasing "Father of the Bride" (1950), starring Spencer Tracy. Stevens, however, saw in Taylor the vulnerability, passionate abandon, and inner strength to play Angela Vickers, the ravishing socialite heroine of "A Place in the Sun" (1951), his adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel, <i>An American Tragedy</i>. Not since "National Velvet" had she tackled such a demanding role - or given such a multi-dimensional performance - as she did here, portraying patrician girlfriend of a poor but rabidly ambitious factory worker, so desperate to get ahead that he commits murder. Challenged by Stevens and co-stars Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters, Taylor erased any lingering doubts that she had the dramatic chops to tackle difficult roles. A critical and commercial smash, nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, "A Place in the Sun" should have brought Taylor choice dramatic assignments from MGM. By and large, however, the films she made over the next five years were mediocre at best. During this time, Taylor was generating more ink for her marriages - first, to hotel magnate Nicky Hilton (who she later claimed physically abused her), followed closely by British actor Michael Wilding (who would father two of her three children) - than her performances in such middling star vehicles as "The Girl Who Had Everything" (1953) and "The Last Time I Saw in Paris" (1954).<p>Once again, George Stevens effectively came to Taylor's professional rescue with another juicy role: the female lead in his sweeping, big-budget adaptation of Edna Ferber's Texas family saga, "Giant" (1956), co-starring Rock Hudson and James Dean. To play Leslie Benedict, a headstrong yet compassionate Virginia belle married to wealthy Texas cattle rancher Jordan "Bick" Benedict (Hudson), Taylor had to age 30-odd years convincingly. That she was more believable as a radiant newlywed than a graying, dowdy grandmother did not diminish what was an excellent performance that held up beautifully. Yet while her male co-stars both received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor - Dean, posthumously - Taylor's finely modulated performance in "Giant" was overlooked by the Motion Picture Academy. Despite the snub for her work in "Giant," Taylor received something more - a chance to form on location a lifelong close friendship with Hudson, who would become one of several of her closeted gay best friends, including Montgomery Clift and fellow child star, Roddy McDowall.<p>A year later, she would finally receive the first of her five Academy Award nominations for a film that <i>The New York Times</i> film critic Bosley Crowther savaged as a "formless amoeba of a thing: " "Raintree County" (1957). Years in the making, MGM's expensive, Cinemascope adaptation of Ross Lockridge, Jr.'s Civil War-era novel cast Taylor as Susanna Drake, a mentally unstable New Orleans beauty married to an idealistic Midwesterner (Montgomery Clift) fighting for the Union. Laboriously directed by Edward Dmytryk, Taylor's histrionic performance was the only spark in this turgid, overblown film that was chiefly remembered for Clift's unfortunate appearance. A near-fatal car accident during the film's production - which occurred after leaving Taylor's home in the Hollywood Hills - had left his formerly handsome face disfigured, so there was no consistency as to how he photographed throughout "Raintree County." Since the accident occurred not far from the Wilding home, not only did she race to Clift's side and keep him from choking to death by removing two of his teeth which had become lodged in his throat, she would nurse him back to health and provide as much nurturing as the tortured actor would allow. Due in no small part to personal demons and his inability to accept his disfigurement, Clift would become yet another imploder, self-destructive through drink and pills, who Taylor would attempt to help save.<p>Whereas "Raintree County" was best forgotten, Taylor's follow-up featured one of her very best performances. Unfortunately, as was becoming the norm in her life, career highlights came in tandem with personal tragedies. Having divorced Wilding in 1957 and that same year married husband No. 3 - film producer Mike Todd - Taylor was, for the first time in her married life, blissfully happy with a man completely in love with her. She had recently given birth to their daughter, Elizabeth "Liza" Todd, and was feeling a bit under the weather when Todd took a trip she had intended to accompany him on. Unfortunately the showman's private plane, "The Lucky Liz" crashed near Grants, NM on March 22, 1958. Taylor was so grief-stricken, she had to be sedated upon hearing the news. Still mourning the loss of her larger-than-life showman husband, she nonetheless plunged into the role of Maggie in Richard Brooks' powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Broadway smash, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958). The role fit Taylor's screen persona as tightly as the slip she wore in many scenes: Maggie is tempestuous yet tender; a vulnerable woman who refuses to be an emotional doormat. The scenes between Taylor and co-star Paul Newman crackled with sexual electricity. The film would bring Taylor her second Academy Award nomination. But at the same time she experienced this accolade, she found herself again making news for other, more salacious reasons.<p>While grieving the loss of Todd throughout 1958, Taylor had grown extremely close to his best friend, crooning sensation, Eddie Fisher. Unfortunately, any wife of a man within 10 feet of Taylor for more than an hour did not stand a chance. The wife in question just happened to be musical screen star, Debbie Reynolds. Together with Fisher, the couple had been coined "America's Sweethearts" for several years - even double-dating with Todd and Taylor on occasion. Unfortunately, Taylor and Fisher fell in love - or something akin to that; more than likely a shared grief instead - breaking up the "perfect marriage" of Fisher and Reynolds. It did not bode well for either Fisher or Taylor that Reynolds was often photographed solo with her two children, Carrie and Todd, securing the sympathy vote as the wronged woman. For the first time in her life, Taylor experienced a radical shift in public opinion: from sympathy at the loss of Todd, to outright rancor and disgust for stealing another woman's husband. Indeed, the Fisher/Taylor/Reynolds dust-up ended up being the biggest Hollywood scandal of the 1950s. Taylor's career would eventually recover, but Fisher's fans would prove less forgiving - helping the crooner fuel a lifelong addiction to pills and booze.<p>Despite the tabloid buzz of real-life "jezebel," Taylor would return to the Southern Gothic milieu of Tennessee Williams for her next film, "Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959), co-starring Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. A lurid psychodrama based on Williams' one-act play <i>Garden District</i>, "Suddenly, Last Summer" was the third and final film starring Taylor and Clift, as he was then spiraling downward into alcoholism and drug addiction. Given the well-documented tensions on the set, where Taylor and Hepburn frequently quarreled with director Joseph L. Mankiewicz and producer Sam Spiegel, it was a wonder that "Suddenly, Last Summer" was ever completed, much less turned out to be a compelling film. As for Taylor, her intense performance as Catherine Holly, an emotionally traumatized young woman scheduled to be lobotomized, earned her a third Academy Award nomination.<p>Now married to Fisher, Taylor's part in the love triangle three years prior would be forgiven after she nearly died from pneumonia in 1961. Her fight to survive not only made for great copy, it also earned Taylor the Motion Picture Academy's "sympathy vote" for her role as a Manhattan call girl in "Butterfield 8" (1960). Taylor herself had no illusions about why she won the 1960 Best Actress Oscar for her solid but unremarkable performance in a film she loathed. Everyone else seemed to know the down-low too. Fellow nominee Shirley MacLaine (for "The Apartment") reportedly exclaimed, "I lost to a tracheotomy!" Oscar in hand, Taylor returned to work with a lucrative vengeance: for playing the title role in Fox's mega-budgeted "Cleopatra" (1963), she became the first actor to receive a $1 million fee. Initially greenlit as a $2 million epic, shot in London by veteran Rouben Mamoulian, "Cleopatra" was dogged by costly delays from the start. Mamoulian exited the film, as did Taylor's original co-stars Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd; they were replaced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, respectively. Playing Marc Antony to Taylor's Queen of the Nile, the Welsh coal miner's son with the sonorous voice and handsomely ravaged face embarked on a steamy affair with Taylor - often blatantly in front of photographers on vacation. Looking the chump and perhaps experiencing a bit of karma, Fisher could only sit back while his wife continued to cozy up to Burton. Meanwhile, the budget for "Cleopatra" kept soaring as the production dragged on in Rome. When Mankiewicz finally screened his reported six-hour cut of the film for Fox executives, the budget for "Cleopatra" had topped $44 million (approximately $300 million, adjusted for inflation). As for Taylor, she ultimately pocketed a cool $7 million paycheck for "Cleopatra," as well as husband No. 5, once she and Burton divorced their respective spouses.<p>The tepidly received "Cleopatra" was the first of nine feature films starring the couple soon known around the world as simply, "Liz and Dick." Most of their films were negligible, if not downright terrible, like the treacly romantic drama "The Sandpiper" (1965) or "Boom!" (1968), a botched adaptation of Tennessee Williams' <i>The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore</i>. It seemed that Taylor and Burton were too busy living a life of glittery, drunken excess to focus on their film careers. They would marry not once, but twice - first in 1964; then in 1975. All told, only two of their films withstood critical scrutiny: Franco Zefferelli's opulent adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966). It was veteran screenwriter Ernest Lehman's brainstorm to cast Taylor and Burton as Martha and George in the latter, the embattled couple playing alcohol-fueled head games with a young professor and his mousy wife, in Mike Nichols' film version of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Rumor had it that would not be much of a stretch for Burton and Taylor, a volatile couple whose boozy, top-volume arguments were already the stuff of tabloid legend. That said, it was difficult to envision the beautiful 34-year-old Taylor as the foul-mouthed, middle-aged Martha, a part character actress Uta Hagen had played to unanimous acclaim on Broadway. Studio boss Jack Warner had reportedly wanted to cast either Bette Davis or Patricia Neal in the role, rather than Taylor. Whatever reservations critics had about Taylor's casting evaporated, once she appeared onscreen, 25 pounds heavier and wearing a salt-and-pepper wig. Taylor deservedly won her second Best Actress Academy Award for Nichols' film, which received 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Director, and Actor for Burton, who lost to Paul Scofield for "A Man for All Seasons" (1966).<p>"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" marked the artistic peak of Taylor's film career. She continued making films, most notably "The Taming of the Shrew" and John Huston's haunting "Reflections of a Golden Eye" (1967), opposite Marlon Brando. Otherwise, her big screen vehicles over the last 40 years proved uniformly disappointing: "The Only Game in Town" (1970), "The Blue Bird" (1976), and "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980), to name just three. In 1994, she made her final feature film, Universal's live-action version of "The Flintstones." Like many actresses of a certain age, Taylor found better roles on the small screen. She startled soap fans by making an appearance as the evil Helena Cassadine at Luke and Laura's much publicized 1981 wedding on the daytime drama, "General Hospital" (ABC, 1963- ). She and Carol Burnett redeemed the soapy, HBO made-for-television film, "Between Friends" (1983). She also returned to the works of Tennessee Williams for Nicholas Roeg's NBC remake of "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1989), bravely playing an over-the-hill actress involved with a much younger gigolo (Mark Harmon). In 2001, she and Debbie Reynolds put the Eddie Fisher scandal behind them to join Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins in the made-for-television comedy, "These Old Broads" (ABC, 2001), written by Reynolds' daughter, actress-writer Carrie Fisher.<p>Still, aside from her acclaimed, Tony Award-nominated performance in Austin Pendleton's 1981 Broadway revival of Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes," Taylor never again attempted anything as challenging as Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She and Burton would work together one last time - in a poorly received Broadway revival of Noel Coward's "Private Lives" in 1983, a year before his death - but acting had long since taken a back seat to Taylor's AIDS activism, which occurred in the wake of best friend Rock Hudson's 1985 death from the disease - to say nothing of a continued succession of post-Burton husbands including Senator John Warner in 1976, and later, a construction worker she met in rehab, husband No. 7, Larry Fortensky, in 1991. All would end in divorce. Although frequently plagued by serious illness and a very public battle with her weight in the 1970s, Taylor never retreated from the public eye, despite its occasional cruel judgments. It was home to her; a place she had lived comfortably roughly since birth. As she herself once explained, "I've been through it all, baby. I'm mother courage."<p>In her later years, Taylor was best known for continuing to champion AIDS research, which earned her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993. She remained a tabloid fixture as singing superstar Michael Jackson's best friend, always at his side; as she had done for numerous friends in her life, she would loyally stand by the embattled singer during child molestation accusations against him in both 1993 and 2005. When he suddenly passed away in June 2009 of a drug overdose, a devastated and vulnerable Taylor made one of her final public statements about him and their friendship, giving the public the impression she might not rebound from her latest tragedy. She would survive another two years, suffering privately from heart problems which left her hospitalized for six weeks in 2011. Because she had cheated death numerous times over the decades, recovering from brain tumors, pneumonia and even a 30-year prescription drug addiction, many came to view her as indestructible. Sadly, on March 23, 20011, the screen goddess passed away from congestive heart failure, surrounded by her four children.

Met while filming "Cleopatra" (1963); First married March 16, 1964; Co-starred in "The Sandpiper" (1965) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966); Divorced June 26, 1974; Married a second time Oct. 10, 1975; Second divorce Aug. 1, 1976

Maria Burton-Carson

Daughter

Born Aug. 1, 1961 in Germany; Adopted 1964 with Richard Burton; German orphan

Education

The actress was named Commander Of The Arts and Letters by French government in 1985.

Taylor received the French Legion of Honor in 1987.

She was the recipient of the Aristotle S. Onassis Foundation Award in 1988 for her AIDS work.

Taylor underwent replacement surgery on both hips in 1995.

In 1997, Taylor underwent surgery for a benign brain tumor.

Taylor fell in her home on Feb. 27, 1998 (her 66th birthday) and suffered a compression fracture in her lower back.

She re-injured her back in another fall in her home in August 1999.

She was made a Dame of the British Empire in December 1999.

Taylor was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal in January 2001 on behalf of her humanitarian work.

Taylor underwent radiation therapy in June 2002 to treat basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.

In November 2004, Taylor was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

On May 30, 2006, Taylor appeared on "Larry King Live" (CNN) to refute the claims that she had been ill, and denied the allegations that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was close to death.

Taylor revealed she was going under the knife to improve blood flow to her heart. On Oct. 9, 2009, she assured fans her heart surgery went well. She posted on her Twitter.com page, "Dear Friends, My heart procedure went off perfectly. It's like having a brand new ticker. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I know they all helped. Love you, Elizabeth."